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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

We're off on our African Adventure!

After years of planning, months of training, weeks of prepping, and days of packing, today was finally the day! We are headed to Toronto, the first leg of our travels to Africa. We'll be traveling for a couple of days, then relaxing in Moshi, Tanzania, and then attempting to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. After the climb, we'll head to Kenya on safari to see the Great Migration. And after that, we'll head to Zanzibar -- yes, it's a real place -- for a vacation from our vacation, starting in Stone Town, and then going to the village of Bwejuu on the coast. All in all we'll be gone for a month -- and we're super excited!

We had no problems this morning: up early, which means we had a brief chat with Alex before Kim came to pick us up. So much love in the Hood!

We timed our check-in at Air Canada slightly badly -- right behind a large group of Eclipse Enthusiasts from Japan. Adorable. It seemed like Sea-Tac was super busy -- and that everyone else had come in for the eclipse and was now going home.

Slipped easily through security with TSA Pre-check, then we meandered the airport -- both to kill time and kill nerves. And, of course, we stopped at the Africa Lounge for some cocktails.

Hey, 7:31am in Seattle is 5:31pm in Moshi, so we were allowed. For the record, we had a Safari Mai Tai.

We did a lot of wandering to kill time -- and we were glad when we could finally board the plane.

Our flight was long but uneventful... as was our arrival in Toronto.

We were happy to see our bags and take advantage of the free baggage trolleys... all the way through the airport, onto the train, along the sidewalk to the ALT Hotel, up the elevator, and into the room. Result!

We nosed around the "grab & go" section downstairs before walking to a nearby "Pizza Way" (not a success) and "Pub" (meh, but friendly)... and then returning to the ALT and having a sushi roll and veggie lasagna to share at the bar.

ALT is one of those young modern business hotels with lots of hangout areas and small, nicely appointed rooms. Nothing fancy, but the bed was comfy and the sheets were nice. And the glass-fronted shower facing into the main room? Well, that was interesting too... but as Wil pointed out, there's only one bed, sooooooo....